Overlander: One man’s epic race to cross Australia

Rupert Guinness set out on the trip of a lifetime: to race across Australia in the inaugural Indian Pacific Wheel Race.

This would be no ordinary bike race. Unlike the Tour de France, which Guinness made his name reporting on for decades, competitors would ride completely unassisted from Fremantle in Western Australia to the Opera House in Sydney on the other side of the country - a gruelling distance of over 5,000 kilometres that would not only test riders’ physical endurance but their psychological resilience as well. Dubbed ‘The Hunger Games on Wheels’, there would be no help, just riders and their bikes crossing one of the most beautiful - and most inhospitable - places on earth.

Rupert’s mission was to test his own grit, physical and emotional, as he followed the trail of the pioneering men and women whose historic rides over the last two centuries unveiled a largely unknown interior.

But when a terrible tragedy stopped competitors in their tracks, Rupert was forced to make one of the toughest decisions he had ever faced - and ultimately, what he discovered was the extraordinary power of the human spirit.